Apollo High School

For the past 30 years, Mrs. Thorpe has been a key fixture at Apollo High School. Her bilingual gymnastics*, if you wanted to call them that, have integrated themselves into the vocabulary of 3 decades worth of students here at Apollo. And they say Latin is a dead language! Try to telling that to Mrs. Thore.

*When the phrase bilingual was used prior, it was a slight misnomer. She is actually trilingual. She studied Latin, Spanish, and English in college, and taught all three during her first few years teaching. She has since, however, concentrated her teaching skills on strictly Latin.

The Avid Young and the Restless Fan believes the most gratifying thing about teaching is when, as she aptly describes it, "that light bulb goes on. When you look at a kid and you just know that he's got it." There are different ways for a student to reach this point however. "Sometimes it's like,' aww', when it really, really clicks, and sometimes it's just 'ah, ok'. But it's the joy you get when you know that they worked really hard, that's the best part."

But, unfortunately, teaching isn't comprised completely of those moments that make it all worth it. There are a lot of moments that aren't particularly enjoyable as well."They say that, if you have a passion about something, you'll never work a day in your life. It didn't quite work out like that, however. It's the paperwork that really gets you down."
But she's not necessarily complaining about the lousy hand she has been dealt (or anything of the like). Teaching was the only profession she was ever really interested in pursuing. "I am one fortunate person, I guess. I've taught in the same building for 31 years. I've taught in only one high school."

But, despite the importance of her career, she has several hobbies. "I enjoy reading. I tape one soap opera everyday and watch it, and I enjoy crossword puzzles. I also have a little dog, named Scrappy- who's a lot of fun."

She also manages to maintain a fairly active social life. "My husband and I like to travel- go to Indianapolis and visit my kids, eat out and go to movies." She's also a member of a pretty serious educator's bowling league that meets at 4:00 every thursday. "...we bowl from 4:00 to 6:00, then we go out to eat, and then we go shopping sometimes. We really have a great time."

As far as plans for the future go, she's still not sure, completely. But she does no one thing, "I'm waiting patiently for grandchildren."